Family of man shot to death by Euclid police officer wants answers

EUCLID, Ohio -- The shooting death of 23-year-old Luke Stewart didn't hit many members of his family until they closed his casket Friday and carried him as a family.

Stewart's cousin, Jocelyn Smith, said it still seems unreal that he is gone. She learned about the news of her cousin's death after her cousin saw a television news report about a shooting involving a man and an officer with Euclid police.

She recognized his car.

A dispatch recording released by investigators revealed that an officer was inside a car with Stewart about 7 a.m. March 13 when the shooting happened.

Euclid police have declined to speak about the shooting citing the ongoing investigation, but the Cleveland NAACP decried the department saying that its members are "disturbed" by the shooting.

In a statement released the day of the shooting, the department said its officers were in the neighborhood of South Lakeshore Boulevard and East 215th Street to investigate a report of a suspicious vehicle. Stewart died at Euclid Hospital.

Police have not identified the officer who fired the shots. The officer has been placed on administrative leave. The Ohio Attorney General's Office's Bureau of Criminal Investigator is assisting in the investigation.

Smith said in an interview Saturday that none of the agencies have reached out to the family. The family thinks that it's unacceptable that investigators have done little to help bring clarity to just how Stewart died.

"We've reached out and kind of shared these (concerns) with Euclid Police Department as well as BCI, things as simple as the officer's name," Smith said. "Why has that not been released?"

Smith said Stewart was sleeping in the car after hanging out with friends all night and dropping a couple of them off. The family learned that he had called a friend to ask if he can crash at their home, but they didn't answer.

Smith described Stewart as a jokester and always had an amazing smile on his face. Smith recently spoke to Stewart about going to trade school, she indicated.

"He was a sweet person he seemed real tough on the outside, but when you talked to him or when you dealt with him he was always helpful," Smith said. "He grew up with my son who is 21 and they were kind of like brothers. There's a lot of pictures of them riding bikes, kicking it, hanging out together."

The healing process won't start until the family gets justice for what happened to Stewart, Smith said.

"The unanswered questions make it hard to start the grieving process," she said. "None of the shots fired were to deescalate the threat. They were kill shots. The way he was shot was a step away in my opinion of execution style."

Stewart's family is being represented by civil rights attorney Terry Gilbert.

"We've seen these scenarios over and over again particularly with white police officers and young black men where they become aggressive and engage in dangerous conduct to try to get somebody arrested," he said.

Gilbert believes police need to take a step back in these types of situations and use time to get backup or calm the situation down.